Alexander the Great

We've been playing Civilisation V (or as the cool kids call it, Civ V) non stop since Christmas Day (a strategy turn based game involving conquering the world starting in about 4000BC), so it seemed appropriate to go and see the Alexander the Great exhibition at the Australian Museum.

Declan, in particular, is still very very into Greek myths and history, so really enjoyed being able to tell us all about the background to the various statues of greek gods we saw (impressing a passing bystander by his immediate identification of Dionysus, for example).

The exhibition itself was pretty impressive, although some of the exhibits were generic finds from the time period and location (sadly no actual armour worn by Alexander).

It was really interesting to see how much influence he seemed to genuinely have had on the course of history. And the boys are at a great age to see an exhibition at about the same pace that we would like.

Bike riding gets harder

Now that we live in Crows Nest (which, given the name, is at the top of a hill - about 100m above sea level) it is a bit harder to cycle in to (or more to the point home from) town.

But we've done it a couple of times now, and are getting better at it. We have a route along footpaths, once we've got past Milson's Point, which is fine at weekends, as not many people walk around on weekends.

Declan at first thought he couldn't make it up the hill home, but with the judicious application of water, he's fine now.

Christmas Cake decoration

While down at the Grandparents, Callum and Declan decorated the Christmas cake (as well as the gingerbread houses). Since it was 22 December (one day after the world had been due to end, according to a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar), they both chose an apocalyptic theme, with Callum creating a mushroom cloud, and Declan decorating his with "good morning" - an ironic comment given that the morning wasn't supposed to exist.

Restaurant reviews

Now that we live in walking distant from many many restaurants, we've decided we need to try a new one every time we go out. We had our first try today - not too challenging - a burger place call Moo. Everyone agreed it was very tasty, although for the first time ever, the boys decided that the children's meals were a bit small (despite being for the under 12s).

The restaurant next door was Persian, with other options just across the road being Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai. 

Merry Christmas

We've had our first Christmas in our new house, which certainly worked well.

Callum and Declan now officially know that Santa doesn't exist, but they still got stockings as soon as everyone was awake. Declan was very taken with a robotic fish (having asked for a real one) and Callum was very taken with the prospect of new computer games. After breakfast, there was more - new computers to put the games on (which were then shown proudly to every visitor), and then lunch with assorted family members.

The other very popular present was remote control cars - which was the main thing this house lacked - every house with a big room should have remote control cars. Hours of entertainment.

To cap off the day, Angela Rob and Tom came down from the mountains and stayed the night, and the boys had a great time playing various combinations of computer games and remote control cars.

Mosman High update

Callum went to Mosman High on Thursday (the day after school finished) to do a maths test to see where they should put him for maths. They called back on Friday, to say they would like to put Callum into Year 9 maths, as long as they can sort out the timetabling issues (currently he'll miss a bit too much english, but they reckon that can be fixed).

Callum is very pleased that he showed what he can do, as are we.

Gingerbread houses

Callum's house

The boys had a visit down to Grandma and Grandpa last night to make ginger bread houses (and to be generally sociable).

The doorbell game wasn't played as much as in previous years, as I think both grandparents and grandchildren are getting a bit sick of it.

Declan's house

But it sounds as if much fun was had by all, with the boys arriving back this afternoon, grandparents in tow, having walked up to Kirrawee station and then caught public transport all the way here. The gingerbread house on the left is Callum's in the style of the traditional house. On the right is Declan's. He's tried for a crocodile, dragon and snake theme (not sure how visible that is). There is a snake with eggs at the front on the left, and a crocodile on a frozen lake on the right.

Last day of school

Callum and Declan have now had their last day of Cammeray Public School.

Callum got his uniform signed by his classmates, as is traditional, and all the Year 6s went through an honour guard of the whole school - an arch of hands from the year 5s down to the Kindys (although the Kindys just did high fives, as they were too short for the Year 6s to get underneath their hands).

Declan got a special laminated piece of paper signed by all his friends, several of whom signed "goodbye and hello" as they will be going with him to Neutral Bay next year.

Black belts

Callum and Declan are now officially black belts in Tae Kwon Do. Here they are celebrating with two of their fellow qualifiers last night. To qualify, they had to learn a bunch of different patterns, and do some free sparring with some of their fellow qualifiers (for some of the time they each had to spar with two others).

They came home last night very pleased with themselves.

Nerf wars

Before we moved in to our new house, we had an enormous empty space, that was just begging for a nerf war. So Callum and Declan each organised a team of kids from year 6 and year 4, to have an hour and a half of nerf fighting. In the end the Year 6s won, because they played more as a team, and used a bit of intelligence rather than just blasting each other.

Evan turned out the major loser, though, having to spend an hour and a half in an echo-ey space with 14 very excited boys shouting at the tops of their voices.

He looked shaken when they got home that night.

Room decoration

Now that we are in our new house, Callum and Declan are very taken with the responsibility of having rooms of their own. Before we moved in, Callum made a complete plan of his room on google sketchup, trying to decide exactly where to put his four pieces of furniture (bed, desk, bedside bookshelf and blanket box).

And since we moved in, Declan has decided he needs a rug, and pictures on the walls. He was all set to go down the road to a Crows Nest rug shop,

"They've got a 90% sale on, Jennifer, we'd better go there before it finishes!"

before I broke it to him that it is traditional for rug shops to have permanent sales. He's also been checking out Monet prints on line. He's still keen, but realises that it is probably not the most important thing for our new house. And besides, yesterday he brought home the artwork he made this year at school, and he's decided that should go up first.

Jingle medals, Jingle medals

Callum shows off his loot

Last night was A night, Cammeray Public School's annual awards night, and the boys made out like bandits. Callum won the school debating prize (which includes a perpetual trophy and medal), the Maths Olympiad prize, a medal for the robotics team, and the most exciting, the prize for top mathematician in the school (which puts him up on the Honour Board in reception).

Not to be left out, Declan won an academic award for his class, and also the prize for the robotics team.

Evan's robotics team congratulates him on his medal

And because it was our last year at Cammeray, they took the opportunity to give Evan a medal of his own for organising the robotics team, and all the other things he's done at Cammeray over the years.

As an aside, I was quietly pleased that out of two hours of awards there were exactly two awards for sport, with the prominence going to academic awards, arts, and citizenship.

The boys were both thrilled, with Callum still bubbling with excitement this morning.

O Tannenbaum

Declan has been singing Christmas carols all day, testing the acoustics of our new house. So it is only appropriate that we put up a Christmas tree this afternoon, finding ornaments we has last used three years ago.

Here are Callum and Declan showing off their handiwork.

End of year dance

It seems incredible, but Callum has 8 days left of primary school. To celebrate, they had an end of year dance. Callum even danced with me!

Callum looked very grown up, and despite Evan wearing a matching shirt, they looked great together.

Here they are, when we got home.

Speech news

It is speech time in the term again and it was Callum's last primary school speech. Their topic was to tell the story of their time at Cammeray. Callum chose to tell it by telling it from the perspective of his hat - "Callum Predavec's time at Cammeray, by A Hat". He said that his class (perhaps a little bored by listening to 30 renditions of "and then in year 3 I had Ms Carapina..." didn't react much) but his teacher laughed several times.

He was rewarded by a Merit award - "for delegating responsibility for delivering a speech to his hat!", which he was very pleased by.

Party planning

Declan's project for this term has been to plan a party. They had to plan the theme, work to a budget for 30 children, and plan the timetable and decorations.

He had a great time looking up various things, deciding he couldn't afford entertainment, just decorations and hall hire, and working out the exact are of the cake he had bought to feed his 30 guests.

He was quite disgusted that one of the other kids in the class decided to have PSY rapping Gangnam style (apparently they could get him for free) for entertainment, while Declan had even counted credit card charges (from Evan, lending his credit card for hypothetical purchases) in his budget. He probably would have enjoyed the Gangnam party, though.

Not sleeping over

The weekend before last (yes I am out of date), Declan and Callum were on a long delayed promise to sleep over at Finn's house. At the last minute, Callum decided that he wouldn't go, after we pointed out that he would have to play the computer games Finn wanted to play (not his own preferences).

So after a bit of a scramble, I bought Callum the very last ticket to the Wharf Revue that Evan and I were already planning to go to (a satirical current affairs revue that happens every year at the Sydney Theatre Company) and the three of us headed out.

Callum absolutely loved it, almost every minute (except for the Mozart sketch on gay marriage - he really doesn't like operatic singing) and was very proud of himself for getting most of the jokes. It was nice for all of us to chat about the show without Callum and Declan competing for attention.

Weekend at Finn's

Declan's friend Finn has his birthday in mid December, so always struggles to get anyone to come to a birthday party. So when his parents asked Finn what party he wanted this year, Finn decided to invite all of us to their holiday house in Maianbar (a tiny suburb in the Royal National Park south of Sydney). Their house is right next to the water, and the Gladstones took everyone out in a tinny so the boys (and Finn's sister Rose) could take turns being dragged behind the boat holding on to an inflatable mattress. Evan and I followed sedately in a double kayak, occasionally splashing the boat for good measure.

Even though they took their iPads down with them, it was heartening how much of the play was outdoors for the whole weekend.

Sadly we all came home sunburned, with Callum the worst affected, as he only seemed to put random patches of sunscreen on his face. He refused to let me take his picture, he was so embarrassed.

Goody....

Year 6 are doing a spoof of 12 Days of Christmas. On the third day they give three blue cards. Blue cards are warning cards handed out when a kid does something wrong. Callum has been nominated as the recipient of that one because he is the only child in Year 6 to have never received on for real.

Mosman High meeting

I met with the Principal of Callum's new school last week. I was, I admit, worried about the meeting because I was not sure what we'd do if it went badly.

As it turned out, it went fabulously. The Principal was lovely and welcoming and said all the right things about dealing with him as an individual, giving him opportunities and so on.

More materially she wrote a memo in front of me addressed to the Head Mathematics teacher and scheduling a pre-test for Cal in week 2 of next year with the intent to accelerate him as needed. She even scheduled in a phone call to me at the end of that week.

I was really impressed both with her attitude and her actions. That said, we've been down these roads enough times before to remain calm until we see what actually happens when the whole school mechanism grinds into motion.

Media moments

The boys and I appeared in a photo illustrating an article about overcrowding in schools. It's not a great photo.

I featured in an opinion piece in the BRW about not being defined by your job title.

All in the course of one day! Whatever next?

Maths

Callum had his last lesson with Cristian, his maths teacher, yesterday. He got 95% in an end of year 8 test and many compliments from Cristian.

The big questions now: what do we do for the remainder of term now Cristian has had to go to Romania, and what do we do next year.

House

Our offer to buy 69 Falcon St was accepted. Wow...

Camping at Cockatoo Island

Cammeray's annual family camping weekend was this weekend at Cockatoo Island. Around 80 families book the same weekend, and generally hang out together at the Island over Saturday night. Now that the boys are at the older end of the school, we don't know as many people, but the boys had a great time with posses of their friends. Many of Declan's friends (Declan decided against it as he didn't want to lose ammunition) brought nerf guns. If you've ever been to Cockatoo Island, you can imagine that the tunnels make a great location for a nerf battle or two.

And one of Callum's friends brought walkie talkies, so they made up a game of cops and robbers before Callum decided to retreat to our tent and read on his ipad.

We had a good time talking school choice with both sets of parents - the topic du jour for years 4 and 6 (even though all the year 6s have decided by now).

OC Update

Declan and Evan went off to the OC information morning on Friday (with many of Declan's friends). Partly because many of Declan's friends are going, and partly because Declan really liked the sound of OC (even though he has been warned to expect more homework), we sent off the acceptance this evening.

Declan's friend Nicolas Palmer has definitely decided to go. So Declan decided to go to be with Nic, and  Gabriel decided to go to be with Declan (plus there are 6 or 7 more who are generally good friends also). Sadly Finn will be left behind at Cammeray, but they are hatching plans to play together at weekends.

Murder under the Microscope

One of the fun things they do in Year 6 at Cammeray is Murder under the Microscope, a very cool science detective project put on by the University of Western Sydney. It is Australia wide, with different levels, and they have to figure out what it is that is causing problems for a particular native species in a particular local area of Australia.

Callum and his team didn't get the right answer; but they made a great video about the experience of getting the wrong answer; so great that they came second in the category of Creative Investigators Award.

They got to go out to Parramatta on Friday to receive their award, and answer a few questions for a video the organisers made. I'm hoping both their video, and the interview will be up on the website in the next few days.

A new reader

For his final Year 6 assignment, Callum is writing his autobiography. Which means he has discovered this blog and is rereading his early years with great interest and attention (he was particularly taken with the post with his first ever typing in it). So we will have to be a bit careful what we say about him from now on!

Dessert

Callum has decided that our Saturday afternoon activity should be cooking dessert, so that we can eat it together while all four of us watch a movie together. So far we've made chocolate brownies and spiral shortbread biscuits; I'm trying to decide how far to up the ante - maybe a raspberry souffle?

Team Fortress 2

The boys are addicted to a game called Team Fortress 2. They're both trying to persuade me to play it. So whenever they are allowed to have a computer gaming conversation with me, they spend the time quizzing me in detail on exactly what kind of character I like to be in first person shooter games.

The consensus from both of them is that I should be a sniper or medic, although when I showed him this blog post, Callum showed every sign of running through every possibility again.

Declan OC offer

Declan got an offer for the Neutral Bay Opportunity Class yesterday with a great overall mark. He's very chuffed, and rightly so.

When he sat the exam earlier in the year, he and some of his friends agreed on a one-in, all-in policy: They'd only go if they all go. So now on top of the other considerations there're already emails going around amongst the parents trying to sound out positions. Should make for an interesting decision.

50km on a bike

We did the Spring Cycle Ride on the weekend from North Sydney to Olympic Park. Callum's GPS, which  now never leaves him for things like this, confirmed the distance as just over 50km.

The boys did it without a murmur even though Callum was beginning to suffer from the saddle and poor Declan had to pedal more than the rest of us as he still has a child-sized bike.

Overall it was a lovely day out and quite a sense of achievement in getting to the end.

Lost tooth and generally growing

After a long hiatus, Callum has resumed tooth loss, patiently working out another tooth on Thursday night. He agreed with Evan that the tooth fairy process of putting a tooth under the pillow was not necessary, and graciously accepted a gold coin directly.

In other growth news, we took the boys shoe shopping on the weekend, as Declan was complaining of tight runners. It turned out that Declan needed to go up one size, but Callum (who had not complained at all) needed to go up two sizes! We are hoping that their school shoes will last the term, but the chances aren't great.

Six foot track

Regular readers of our other blog will know that we did the six foot track during the school holidays. We were very impressed with the boys (and they were impressed with themselves) for walking 45km in three days. Apart from a meltdown from cold on morning 2 (Callum) and morning 3 (Declan) the adults around them were also impressed at their good cheer and superior fitness to most of the group.

Nerf warfare

Nerf wars are a regular feature of the boys' lives; short sharp affairs where every effort is made to shoot each other (and often parents). Declan has recently made himself an ammunition belt. He took one of my old belts, and sticky taped six carefully crafted paper nerf dart holders to it. He's very taken with it, and is looking forward to adding another twelve so that his armoury will be outstanding.

Ride across three bridges

This morning we decided we needed a bit of exercise, so we rode all the way to the other end of the Anzac Bridge. Declan was a bit reluctant, which was a combination of lack of fitness and keenness to get back to computer games, but he made it.

Moving rooms

Callum has now spent an hour or so moving into the playroom - and organising his bedside table to his satisfaction.

Declan was less pleased by the idea, but after spending a week on his own last week, is coming around to the idea. I reminded him about the many times they had their own rooms while we were travelling (they used to leap upon the separate rooms with cries of joy) and I think that helped.

Callum and I run across the Harbour Bridge

Callum and I did the 3.5 K run across the Sydney Harbour bridge last weekend. He was very pleased to use his new GPS watch (from Uncles Martin and Kevin) but still feeling the aftereffects of his cold, which is why we did the 3.5K not the 9K.

It was a glorious day, and the race actually started about 100m from our flat, so it was also very handy. You can see the finish video below.

Marathon-Photos.com Blackmores Sydney Running Festival

A room of their own

There comes a time in any family with enough space when the kids get their own room. We've loved the kids sharing but that time is now for us.

Cal spent last week in the playroom / spare room. He had to move out for a couple of days as Bob and Anna are visiting. But on Saturday the room will be formally re-designated 'Callum's Room'.

Callum pennant and debating

Callum received his third School Pennant at A-Day. Given how many good work cards and awards they have to rack up to get one that's it for his primary school career.

He has also been chosen to represent the school at the try-outs for the regional debating team for the NSW debating competition.

School contrasts

By chance we got letters from IGS (who we have not yet formally turned down for Callum) and Mosman High. Both invited us to information mornings and, very nicely, warned us we'd need to pay for things for next year.

IGS: $6000. Mosman: $60.

No surprises in that but it was certainly an in-your-face contrast getting them on the same day.

Sick Declan

Callum was sick enough on Friday morning that we let him stay home from school. It turned out, though, that Declan was the sicker of the two. Evan got the call at lunchtime to pick him up, and it turned out he had a raging ear infection, which was bad enough that the pain was making him vomit.

A course of serious antibiotics and painkillers made Declan somewhat better (albeit fragile) almost immediately, but he is still not right, needing a nap this afternoon, and definitely not able to do any kind of exercise.

He and Evan are planning to do the 3.5k run/walk across the Harbour Bridge tomorrow - we'll have to see if he is up for it.

Weights and measures

In the traditional measuring on their birthday, we measured Callum and Declan. They have each grown a couple of centimetres in the last four months, with Callum now 142.5 cm and Declan 136.5 cm. Callum is now 38.3 kg, and Declan is 32 kg.

Their heights puts them both around the 50th percentile (Callum a bit below, and Declan a bit above) but I'm starting to wonder whether that percentile measurement is out of date, given how short they both seem at school.

Callum turns 11

Callum turned 11 this week, and declared that he didn't feel any different for the experience. He did have a great day, though, playing with the nerf guns and new camera he got from his parents, and anticipating the new computer game he got from his brother.

He had the grandmothers and a representative uncle over for pizza dinner the night after his birthday, and despite not being in the best of health (with a lingering cold and cough), still had a great evening.

Night of Notables

Callum's big project this term has been night of notables. Each Year 6 student picks a notable person, and learns everything they can about them, with the  aim of presenting them on the Night of Notables in a "learning centre". The night starts with a bioriddle - a rhyme about their notable so that all attendees can guess who it is, and then continues with a "learning centre"which each student prepares about their Notable.

Callum, it will surprise no-one, chose Sir Isaac Newton. His learning centre contained a chemistry experiment (representing alchemy), an eyeball on a stick (representing Sir Isaac's experiments sticking things into his own eyeball), a demonstration of gravity, his science video about Newton's three laws, and some handouts.

The handouts were chocolate coins. Unlike most other exhibitors, Callum refused to hand over the loot until his visitors had listened to his spiel about why the chocolate coins were important (Sir Isaac invented the milled edge during his time in charge of the Royal Mint, to deter people from shaving coins of their precious metals).

Callum had a wonderful time on the night (he was bubbling over for several days afterwards), but a fairly fraught time over the previous week or so getting everything ready to his parents' satisfaction.

Declan in the speak-offs

Declan represented his class in the speak-offs today and came second. This in spite of the fact that his teacher had spent the day trying to send him home because his cold is so awful. The combination of a common cold and his bronchial cough is making him a right mess.

Running on a beautiful spring day

With Uncle Bob and his girlfriend Anna visiting, Callum and I decided to give them a tour of the neighbourhood by going for a run. Callum and I are planning another race this weekend, so we figured we needed to do a bit more training than we have managed lately. And it was a perfect spring day in Sydney

Bob attended to a part of Callum's training that I have sadly neglected, by taking him through some stretches before we all went. 

Anna and I decided to wait and sit on the couch while they showed off their moves. I can feel my legs now, so perhaps some stretching might have been sensible!

Calculating siblings

Declan had a week of mathletics this week, as their teacher asked them to try and get their class up on the leaderboard for most maths. So both boys rediscovered it after a while. They took to doing the arithmetic speed challenge at exactly the same time so that they could compete in the same group of 4.

Most of the time they cheered for each other against the New Zealanders they were competing against over the internet (go Australia!), but occasionally they couldn't help but compete against each other. Declan, interestingly, had the edge on Callum in pure speed, and Callum dealt with it pretty well, a lot better than he would have a year ago, congratulating Declan each time and only looking slightly disappointed when he lost by the slimmest of margins.

Into the valley of English

In the latest in the stream of UNSW ICAS results, Declan got a High Distinction which is very pleasing. Callum got a solid Distinction.

Declan's presentation of the Charge of the Light Brigade for this term's public speaking also seems to have gone well. We were very impressed that he managed to memorise it in such a few days and then present it with lots of character and panache.

Dr Who Fail

There is a new season of Dr Who that has just started, so we decided it was time to see if the boys liked it. They spent a fair bit of time with their faces hidden in pillows, but otherwise seemed to enjoy it.

But at bedtime, the real havoc began. Declan spent 2 and a half hours alternating between lying in bed eyes wide open and coming to see us tearfully insisting he couldn't ever sleep again. And when Declan finally went to sleep about 11, Callum woke up and started visiting us in turn.

I think it will be a while before any of us try Dr Who again.

Walking Practice

We are planning to do the six foot track walk at the end of September, and although we are all now experienced hikers, we have been realising practice has been somewhat lacking of late. So today we did the Harbour Hike, conveniently from Milsons Point to Clifton Gardens (11Km). We started early, to give ourselves time to have a very early lunch, and then walk back (rather than catch the ferry which was put on for the occasion).

After a little bit of grumbling (before we set out on the way back) and a fortifying icecream for dessert, we walked the whole way back, which meant we walked 22km all up, officially the furthest any of us have walked in one day. Not nearly as much elevation change as the six foot track, but quite a lot further than any individual day will be, so we are feeling much better about how well we will do in a month's time.

It was a glorious day for it, beautiful sunshine, and just the right temperature for walking.

Fathers Day

We have managed to imbue the boys with our belief that Father's Day is a commercial conspiracy to get people to buy stuff so that no actual purchasing should take place. Nevertheless, they were keen to mark the occasion.

So cooperatively (after a shaky start when they both wanted to make their own) Callum and Declan created an Amazing Race for Evan, involving a requirement to watch one minute of television, play a round of his choice of computer game, and decipher a message using a caesar shift. At the end of it all, when he was the first person to arrive at the Pit Stop, his prize was a stash of marzipan, which he very considerately shared with all of us.

All that typing practice must be having some effect (both boys can type at around 25 wpm now), as all clues were typed and printed, rather than handwritten.

Catching up

The boys' team won the Sydney Robocup Junior competition, to much smiling and excitement. They got called up in front of the whole school assembly the following Monday and Declan described the experience. Sadly, they did not make the final in the NSW competition.

Declan got an award for looking after Kindy kids in the playground at the same Assembly. Definitely one for parental pride that one, especially as they only give awards at full school assemblies in very rare circumstances.

Both boys have racked up a pile of Distinctions in the UNSW competitions in writing, English and spelling.

Callum fulfilled the requirements for a School Pennant. His third in his career at Cammeray. He has also received awards from the school for debating and his leadership in school sport Tae Kwon Do.

The boys are doing after school TKD again and enjoying it. They are also doing swimming and finally making some progress. Cal's breast stroke in particular is getting to be good.

The boys have had terrible coughs for several weeks now. Declan's in particular has been awful and he's on antibiotics now. They've both missed several days of school partly to recover their energy, partly to try to stop them spreading the germs to others.

School Council

Declan once again came runner up in his class' vote for their school councillor. He wasn't that upset by it, seeing it (rightly) as a popularity contest that he did pretty well in. That means he gets to go along if their designated councillor is sick, but so far that hasn't happened.

High school

We've got the results for Callum's application for selective school. Callum got into Manly Selective (his/our first choice) with a score of 258. After a small amount of angst (we had pretty much decided) we turned it down, so Mosman high is now 99% where Cal will go next year. He won't wear a uniform, so we've been stockig up on cool tshirts for him.

Robots

Callum and Declan are part of a school team for the Robocup. They are making an automaton, with separate programming for the head, two arms and three legs. Callum has an arm, and Declan has one of the legs.

The idea is that their robot will dance along to Rolf Harris' Jake the Peg, with appropriate actions at each part of the song. The competition is on Sunday.

School holidays

Those of you who follow our travelling blog, will know that we went to Malaysia for the second week of the school holidays. Despite a certain amount of sickness (brought with us from Sydney) we had a great time, going on a jungle walk, seeing a great science museum, and bathing baby elephants.

The first week (after the performance weekend) was taken up with various little bits and pieces, including a day playing with Finn for Declan and a great day at the Powerhouse learning how to program Arduino.

Theatre

The boys finished their semester of Saturday mornings at ATYP with a performance season of the show they had been working on. It was a show of mixed up children's tales. Declan played a narrator in his show about a girl who had been visited by a fairy who did her homework for her (and he got a great laugh), and Callum played Willy Wonka who had lost his Oompa Loompas (and did an excellent maniacal laugh).

They did three shows, so that they could get an idea of what it is like doing a season. By all accounts, the first performance was the best. The video is here  http://youtu.be/bsds8rgCcC8.

General Updates

It's been pointed out to me that this blog has been neglected of late, so I'm going to put up a whole lot of quick updates about what's been happening. They will be completely out of order, so bear with me.

Maths for Callum

Callum pretty much finished the year 6 (and a fair bit of year 7 and 8) maths while we were away, so after a few different trials, we've settled on Callum having a private maths lesson twice a week at school while his class does maths. His teacher, Christian, who is Romanian, is an occasional high school teacher at Mosman High, and also tutors high school maths.

They seem to be getting on like a house on fire. Callum gets to talk maths non stop twice a week, and Christian gets to teach someone who loves to talk about maths. We've stressed to Christian that we want Callum to cover the curriculum before he gets to go off and play with Fibonacci numbers (etc) and we think he is, but with enough quirky maths problems to keep them both happy.

Reports

Callum and Declan both got their reports last week on the first half of school. They are both doing very well, with lots of 5s for effort, and outstanding for knowledge in different areas. Callum didn't have any real areas of improvement to work on (possibly he's doing so many things his teacher doesn't see him often enough) but Declan did have a comment that he "rarely"takes pride in his work. Subsequent discussion with the teacher revealed that if there had been a "never" box, Declan would have got that one.

They've both settled back into school very well, and seem to having a good time there (although they are also very much looking forward to the school holidays).

Visit to the Australian Museum

Callum, Declan and Evan went to visit the Australian Museum's Deep Oceans exhibit yesterday. They came home with lots of facts about the oceans, and wonderment at the size of some of the deep sea fish. Here is a picture of Callum, and one of Declan with a deep sea fish.

Racing around the Bay

Following Callum and my success in the MS Fun run, we've decided to enlist the rest of the family. So we've been doing races around Lavender Bay. Evan and Declan go one way around a 2.3 km course, and Callum and I go the other way (sometimes giving them a headstart). It's working well so far, with Declan (and Evan) managing to run the whole way without stopping (even with a stitch) and Evan going so far as to buy some new running shoes.

Busy weekend

We decided not to think about going away this weekend, as we thought we needed some quiet time at home. Didn't quite work out (despite the appalling weather!). On Saturday was the usual ATYP.

Sunday we went up to the mountains for a lovely lunch at the Lees, where the boys managed nearly four hours without any computer games (they played minecraft in person, rather than on computer). We left early to go and see the Vivid lights, but after the heavens opened, we cancelled and  invited Declan's friend Finn and family (who were going to go with us) over for takeaway Thai instead.

And today after Callum had his usual Monday maths lesson we trekked out to Sydney Olympic Park for the Gamer expo, where the boys spent an hour queuing for laser tag, and we marvelled at the number of different versions you can buy of Settlers of Catan.

I think we need a long weekend to recover from our long weekend.

Bus update

Callum and Declan are now quite used to catching the bus to and from school. On the way there they walk up to North Sydney station and get on the appropriate bus, and on the way home they have a choice. They used to always catch the bus home from Cammeray shops, but now they know the timetable enough that they can decide to walk down to Falcon St and catch the bus from there (which stops pretty much outside our place).

In a new degree of difficulty last week, they caught a bus from Falcon St that wasn't on the timetable - after they dithered about whether to get on (the bus said Milson's Point, but it wasn't a number they were expecting) the bus driver helped them out, asked them where they were going and promised them they would go to the right spot.

Evan and I weren't quite sure whether to be proud of their initiative or concerned that they were walking down to Falcon St without telling us. We decided to be proud.

Chess team

Callum and Declan are in one of the Cammeray chess teams. Every Friday afternoon they play against a local team, in a combination of home and away. Because I was home on Friday, I went along and was impressed with how quietly they all play - the only words allowed are Adjust, Check and Checkmate.

Sadly all four of their team lost this week - in Callum and Declan's case, I think their year off chess has meant they've lost their agressive edge, as well as some of their strategic thinking. But they still enjoyed it and were keen to replay the games in conversation on the bus on the way home.

Forbidden Island

One of Declan's many presents from his birthday party was a game that we can all play called Forbidden Island.

It is an enjoyable game for up to 6 players - for those of us who have played Killer Bunnies with us - a bit simpler to grasp. The thing we love about it is that it is entirely cooperative; the objective is for all of us to work together to get off the island.

It made me think we should look out for more like that; we used to love Rise of Nations (computer game) for the same reason - that we could play together against the computer.

An 8K run!

At the start

This morning Callum and I did an 8K fun run. We ran the whole way (except for water stops) on a very hilly course (from Milsons Point to Balls Head and back, with lots of twists and turns to make up the distance.

Looking tireder at the finish

We also did it in under an hour (just over 56 minutes) which was much faster than I expected. I was very proud of Callum, as it was 2km further than he had ever run before, and he found the 7th kilometre, in particular, pretty hard going, but kept going regardless.

For those readers who Callum hasn't already hit up for sponsorship, you can donate here, if you are interested.

Magic tricks

One part of Declan's loot from his party was a magic trick kit. Declan spent an hour last night carefully learning a couple of the tricks (which he did quite effectively, even with the handicap of pyjamas with short sleeves and no pockets).

Not to be outdone, Callum remembered a similar kit he had got from a party a few years ago, and he's been busily learning a few tricks of his own ever since.

Visit from Lucinda

After Declan's party, Lucinda came back with us for a sleepover. She and Declan and Callum had a lovely afternoon together, playing nerf gun wars, sorting out Declan's present loot, playing Team Fortress 2 on the computer together, and then after dinner, watching the third Narnia movie with us. In a model of restraint, Lucinda managed not to give away the entire plot, despite having read the whole book quite recently.

Unfortunately, after they'd all gone to bed, Lucinda became sick with a stomach ache, and her dad had to come and pick her up, which was a sad end to a lovely day. 

Laser tag party

Declan has been looking forward to having a laser tag birthday party since Callum's 8th birthday party (which was laser tag). This was the first year we could manage it, and he was very excited. In the end there were 14 of them (including Callum and Declan) and they had two 12 minutes rounds in teams in Chatswood.

Also included in the party was pizza in the karaoke room (the karaoke was wasted on Declan, although a few of his friends enjoyed it more) and half an hour on the video games after cake.

A good time was had by all. For the record, Declan's friend Gabriel was unequivocally the best at laser tag (apparently he has had a lot of practise), with twins Jamie and Ethan consistently in the top four. Lucinda and Callum were the others at the top of the table most of the time.

Sickness in the house

For the first time in over a year (since Sorrento, to be precise) we had a sick child in the house today. Declan decided mid way through the morning that he was too sick for school. Fortunately, Thursday is Evan's big day at school (ethics, programming, robotics) so he was there to take Declan home. Unfortunately that meant that programming and robotics were cancelled.

But since Thursday is also Declan's favourite day at school (programming, robotics, and science) he clearly was sick and not shamming.

We now have to hope that nobody else in the house catches whatever it was.

Debating team

Callum took part in his first official (representing the school) debate this week as he was third speaker against Neutral Bay. Ironically (in a debate against an OC class), the topic was that OC classes should be abolished, and Callum's team was the negative, with the OC class having to argue that their classes should be abolished.

Unfortunately for Cammeray, most of the normal team was away on band duty, with only Callum being an experience debater. In a surprising (to most of the audience) adjudication, though, Cammeray won even with the inexperienced team. We like to think that Callum's role as last speaker in the debate won the day as he  brought all the points home.

Sydney Writers Festival

Part of the reason the mountain folk were down in Sydney was to visit the Sydney Writers Festival; a very cultural event which I am embarrassed to say I have never visited before.  We went with Angela and Aidan and Tom, with Tom in particular very keen to see John Flanagan. We were there to see two very different writers - Andy Griffiths, author of many many hilarious books, most of which Callum and Declan have read (one of which, The Cat on the Mat is Flat got Declan to realise he could read a book on his own). He was great in person, weaving funny quotes from many of his quotes into what felt like a completely impromptu chat about how he writes books.

The other author was John Flanagan, author of the Rangers Apprentice series, who talked a lot about the experience of writing his books, and how he plans them out. He's just released the second in his new series, Brotherband, which he is promoting, but the audience mostly wanted to talk about Rangers Apprentice.

Callum and Declan really enjoyed both talks, and were completely captivated. Callum felt compelled to point out the continuity error in the Rangers Apprentice series (you could see John Flanagan wince at being asked a very familiar question) and Aidan asked Andy Griffiths how he came up with some of his Just Doomed jokes.

Talkover

We had the mountain folk down for a Saturday night sleepover this weekend - dinner and a movie for the kids, and dinner and conversation for the adults. Very civilized. The boys, Aidan, Tom, Callum and Declan shared the floor of the playroom, and didn't get nearly enough sleep, since they spent every possible waking moment talking or playing computer games.

Poor Emma decided she wasn't that keen on being the only girl in the testosterone filled bedroom, so slept with her parents.

All children had to be dragged away from the computers this morning to be forced to eat breakfast.

Mothers Day

We have discussed with the boys that we think that Mothers day is overly commercialised, and we don't think we should make too much of it. But of course they still do things at school. Which is lovely because they are handmade and thoughtful.

Callum made and decorated a poem for me, and Declan did some tapestry of a heart and made a card. But the most fun thing was that Callum created my own personal amazing race so that I could find my poem, complete with a task to make some of Declan's birthday present lego, and another one to read two pages of their current bedtime book. A great time was had by all.

Spit to Manly

After our recent walking adventures, we decided to revisit our old favourite walk, the Spit to Manly. It is a 9km walk along the foreshores of Sydney Harbour (mostly), through Sydney Harbour National Park, with beach walking, walks through classic sandstone scrub, and some lovely fig tree vine forest.

Declan found it tough going at times, which means we need more walking practice if we are going to do the Milford Track! but the rest of it found it shorter than we had remembered.

Callum and Declan with North Head in the background, at Dobroyd Point , half way

After a quick coffee at Manly Wharf (hot chocolate for Callum), we caught the ferry to Circular Quay and then to Milson's Point, finishing with a well earned early lunch from the Kirribilli markets (and for Callum and Declan, a miraculous recovery of energy and game of tip with Griffin, who we ran into at the Gozleme stand). 

Brain cake

Declan's friend Griffin (who has always had a soft spot for Declan, as they almost share a birthday, albeit five years apart) gave him a silicon brain mould. You can use it to make a cake or jelly in the shape of a human brain.

Since Callum and I were planning to make a cake for the grandparental birthday celebration anyway, we decided to make a brain cake. Sadly no pictures were taken, as we were too eager to eat it. Next time we're planning to use red icing.

Declan's birthday continues...

Everyone tried to figure out how to make it work

In a fantastic display of uncleing, Uncles Martin and Kevin brought Declan a Drone helicopter for his birthday. I suspect that they had to restrain themselves from having a go at home first, but nevertheless Declan got to be the first user as he flew it around our flat.

Not only can you control it through your ipad, but it takes pictures through two different cameras, and enables you to record video that you can share with your friends. We're hoping Declan doesn't use it to spy on the neighbours.

Drone spies on the table

Boys measurements

As is traditional on a birthday, we measured the boys. They've both grown 1.5 cm since last measurement  (which surprised us, as Callum seems to be growing out of his clothes quicker). Callum is now 140.5cm, and 37.7 kg, and Declan is now 134cm and 31.3 kg. Declan is slipping down the height percentile rankings, now he is only 52nd percentile, and Callum is down at 43rd percentile.

Happy Birthday Declan

Declan turned 9 today* on the 9th of May (a coincidence he was quite pleased about). He has been building in excitement for at least the last two weeks (possibly longer), and has been planning his present list for some time. Today he only got presents from his parents and brother, but they were good ones - remote control tanks, a lego ninjago set, a new nerf gun and a toblerone.

He brought chocolate in for his class (abandoning even any pretence of home cooking cup cakes!) and we went out for dinner tonight, where he was very pleased to be interrupted twice by congratulatory phone calls.

In two weeks time he has the other part of his birthday he has been planning for about a year - a laser tag party.


* apologies I am putting up this post late, but dating it correctly.

Cross country results

On Tuesday the boys had their cross country race at school. Callum, after having done some practice on the weekend did well - running the whole 3 K course and (he reports) keeping up a steady pace the whole time (interestingly maintaining his position after the first three minutes, during which he overhauled a whole bunch of overeager sprinters). He came 20th in his age group.

Declan didn't manage to run the whole 2K of his course, but didn't walk too much, and came 65th in his age group. It is interesting, Declan knows that the way to keep running is to run slowly, but he can run almost slower than I believed possible! (and I've done some slow running in my time). 

Declan settles in

Evan and I had a meeting with Declan's teacher Ms Wood on Wednesday. We wanted to talk to her about how he is settling in, and whether he is being challenged enough in maths.

She said that now we're in Term 2 Declan seemed much more confident and happy with his place in the world (something she only noticed by contrast with Term 1 - he seemed fine then, but he's much more confident and outgoing now). He and his friend Lachlan feed off each other and are really doing well in class. Lachlan is more theoretical, and Declan just wants to get down and calculate things straight away.

But she agreed with me that he hates getting things wrong, and needs to be given a few more tricky things so he learns that the world doesn't fall in and you learn quite a lot from struggling with a problem.

Science educators

The University of Sydney sponsors a part of the Eureka Prize, the Sleek Geeks Eureka Prize in two sections for primary and high school students. The task is to create a 1-3 minute video educating about science.

After many dinner table conversations about what the boys could do, they settled on explaining Newton's laws of motion in Minecraft, a nice combination of their two obsessions. After we showed them how to record their voices, how to edit bits of video, and after several false starts, found some software that allowed them to record segments of Minecraft, they spent a few hours on Anzac Day and last weekend editing their video.

The finalists from last year are of a very high standard so they are up against stiff competition, but we all think the finished product is pretty good whether or not they make it that far. We're not sure if we can put it up on youtube until the competition is finished, so anyone who wants to see it will just have to come and visit!

Cross country training

The boys have their cross country running carnival at school on Tuesday, and Callum, in particular, has been very keen to do well. We went out for a run yesterday morning, where Callum pushed through his tiredness and ran the whole course (including the hardest part, the run up the hill from the ferry wharf) without walking once.

This morning, he is off to the actual course in Artarmon to practice with his friend Angus. 

Back to school

The boys were back to school yesterday, for one day before Anzac Day. The school chose to have a pupil free day on Monday, which made for a very stop start week. I don't think they mind at all, though, with it being nice to have another day back to holidays before the term starts in earnest.

Declan wrote a piece about his holidays, in which seeing a stingray was his highlight. And Callum very much enjoyed "relaxation time" in which his whole class lay on the floor with their eyes closed for about ten minutes. A back to Kindergarten experience for the year 6s!

School decision making

The Friday before last, Callum, Evan and I went for a tour of Redlands, the school which has offered Callum a scholarship. It was a very impressive school, with lots of great facilities. The Registrar did a great job of selling the school to us.

But we ended up deciding to turn them down. Possibly because you are required to do sport every Saturday, possibly because they have to go to chapel every week (Callum hated that part), possibly because the very upmarket nature of the school made us uneasy about what kind of people Callum would be going to school with.

At the moment, we think Callum will be going to Mosman High, where he has been accepted into the Academic Stream.

Lord Howe Island

Evan has lots of posts about Lord Howe Island on our travel blog. The summary is that we had a great time, so much so that Declan decided we should go back every year (despite the fact that he had a panic attack about snorkelling off a boat).

After Lord Howe, we unpacked and repacked at home for half an hour before driving up to the mountains for a Minecraft fest with Aidan, followed by a Sunday at Ironfest, which was as good as we remembered it (despite us leaving before the jousting started).

Highlights included making the beginnings of chainmail, practising archery, watching a falconry display, seeing a replica of R2D2 and trying on lots of different forms of armour.

Minecraft again

The boys have been getting ever more sophisticated in minecraft. In the latest development, they have started a Property development company. They build houses and then sell them to people. So far their only customers have been younger siblings of friends, so I'm not sure if it is a money making idea.

It's led to lots of interesting discussions about the nature of money, though, and whether it is possible to have money in a universe where any resource is there for the taking.

Snorkelling

In a practice run for Lord Howe Island, we went snorkelling at Shelley Beach on Monday. We were very lucky to have Bill, Finn's dad and marine biologist, as our guide. Bill took us directly to the spot where he had seen sharks the previous weekend.

Evan and Declan saw sharks (with Declan getting a bit freaked out, even though they were smaller than him) but Callum and I only saw some fish, which were spectacular enough. It was lovely, with the water warmer than the air, and lots of schools of fish hovering over the seaweed.

After we decided we'd had enough snorkelling, we had a lovely hour sitting on the beach with the kids alternately making sandcastles and talking about minecraft.

Science at the Powerhouse

On Wednesday the boys got to go to the Powerhouse for a science day - Professor Pickles' advanced Potions Class. They came back divided. Declan was convinced that the Powerhouse was even better than Diane, their weekly science tutor, and he is keen to go and talk to Diane about all the experiments she should be adding in. Callum, on the other hand, is extremely loyal to Diane, and while he had a good time, said that Diane was still the best science teacher he had ever seen.

They came home with slime and sherbet, which is a winner for any science course.

Talkover

We had the Lees over yesterday for a trip to the MCA, and a sleepover, or, as Aidan explained, a talkover. When the boys went to bed in Callum and Declan's room, and I was wondering how long it would take before they stopped talking. In the end it was only about 15 minutes, but they had a great time anyway.

It was a struggle to pull them all away from Minecraft, but we had a nice trip to the MCA yesterday (walking there across the bridge) and walk down to Lavender Bay (this morning) which gave them a bit of exercise.

Minecraft server management

In the last six months to a year, Minecraft has become the dominant obsession of boys (and some girls) of Callum and Declan's age.

We gave Callum his own server for his birthday last year, and he's been having a bit of a learning experience managing it. He has rules, no killing, no griefing (which means damaging things other people have built) and no swearing. The hard thing recently is that he's had to enforce some of those rules by banning a school acquaintance.

He's thinking of starting a whitelist rather than blacklist process, so that he has to approve people who join his server in advance, rather than just banning them when they do something wrong.

Tricky social issues in this IT age.

End of term

Callum and Declan came home yesterday thrilled that the term has ended. I think they had a good time this term, and enjoyed themselves, but it is nice to have a nice relaxed start to the day this morning.

They've both settled back into school very well. Callum is enjoying running around doing lots of different things (he does the sound for school assemblies, extension work with a small group o f Year 6 kids, one day a week at Cromer, as well as occasionally sitting in his own classroom!). Declan has slotted right back into his group of friends, and told me he spends every recess playing stuck in the mud with them (there are 10 boys from his class who all play together now).

At lunchtime they do chess and programming three days a week and get playing time the rest of the time.

The highlight of the week, though is still science with Dianne on Thursday afternoons which involves lots of fabulously creative and messy experiments (the one I saw a few weeks ago was putting shaving cream on a balloon and popping it to watch the behaviour of gases when they are no longer contained by a balloon).

Schools schools everywhere!

We thought that we wouldn't have any decision making on schools to make for a while, as the selective school results don't come out until July.

But in a very pleasing (if complicating) development, Callum has been asked for scholarship interviews by two private schools which were second and third on our list - Redlands and St Andrews.

We went to Redlands to meet the Principal yesterday morning, and at the end of the interview the Principal said he would like to offer Callum an 80% scholarship, which surprised all of us. We think the Principal (who studied classics) liked the fact that Callum knew who Artemis was, even more than his ability to demonstrate that he could speak some French.

Sadly International Grammar (which was top of our private school list) will not offer Callum a scholarship, so now we have four schools instead of three on our short list (for the record, Redlands, IGS, Mosman High and Manly selective).

New shirt

Now that Callum is a big Year 6 boy, he has a special shirt to prove it. Every year Cammeray gets a special school uniform shirt for Year 6, which is green (instead of gold), and has the names of every Year 6 child on the back. I'm not sure whether we have enough for a whole week, but Callum is certainly keen to wear it every single day.

Callum is particularly pleased because now everyone knows he is in Year 6, instead of occasionally assuming that he is in Year 4 (because of his height).

Robotics afternoon

On Sunday afternoon, we all went up to school for a special robotics workshop. The robotics group that Evan runs on Thursday afternoons is doing an Easter special - they have all programmed robots to throw easter eggs at a mass of excited children at assembly on Monday. Callum's robot (which he has built and programmed himself) whirls a plate around, distributing eggs in all directions.

Declan's robot (which he shares with Finn, Ethan and Jamie) has a very long throwing arm that throws easter eggs one at a time into the adoring crowd.

The mass of robots should create some fantastic chaos on Monday afternoon.

Visit from Finn

On Saturday night, Declan had his friend Finn over for a sleepover. Finn and Declan play computer games constantly as it is, talking via skype. So there wasn't an enormous difference when they were actually in the same room. They had a wonderful time, neverthless, with Finn taking Callum's bed, and Callum getting to sleep in the big bed in the spare room (which he also loved).

Despite the extra hour available from the end of daylight saving, they were too excited to sleep much, but had a great time nonetheless.

We managed to entice them outside on Sunday morning with a visit to our two local playgrounds, but they really just wanted to play computer games.

Children's Literature Festival

We went up to the mountains today for the Festival of Children's Literature at the Norman Lindsay Gallery. It was the ideal combination of literature and running around, with four great author talks (the first one a stand up comedian, which really set the scene) and lots of opportunity for running around with the proxy cousins in between literary events.

As a bonus, someone from Wires was there showing off some rescued animals. Declan got to have a snake draped around his shoulders, and we all admired the baby tawny frogmouth (even though it did eat a whole (dead) mouse).

Callum and Declan liked the first author (Oliver Phommavanh) so much that they each bought one of his books. You can see them reading here in between exhausting games of tip at lunchtime.

Hoarse

Callum is still hoarse after three days of non stop shouting at bush camp. It is quite funny to watch, as he really can't talk for to long before his voice gets tired. I'm using it to stop him talking to me about Minecraft. The downside is that he then won't talk to me about anything else.

Back to speeches

Now that they are back at Cammeray, the boys are back doing one speech a term. Declan's speech had to be on a famous Australian (person, or thing). He chose Howard Florey (but didn't do the same speech Callum had done three years before).

He was keen to research and write the speech himself, which meant it probably wasn't as well structured as the ones we used to write with him, but he had a lot more passion. He didn't make the speak offs, but his friends did, so he's happy.

Callum has missed out on the in class prep time for his speech by going to Cromer every Tuesday, so he's doing some practice this weekend.

The Great Aussie Bush Camp

Callum went off for three days this week (with Evan as a parent helper) to the Great Aussie Bush Camp, up near Tea Gardens, four hours drive north of Sydney. It was for the 60 Year 6 kids in Cammeray School this year, and they did a commando course (Callum had to pretend to be a hostage needing rescuing), mud assault course, giant swing, talent quest and lots of other fun activities.

Callum came home hoarse, from all the shouting, with flecks of mud still in his hair, exhausted, and very happy with his three days. He came second in the talent quest, with his card trick (learned at the Exploratorium). But he was very happy to sleep in his own bed last night.

Walking to the bus

This week, Callum and Evan have been away at Year 6 camp, and so Declan and I have been by ourselves since Wednesday morning. Declan has been very proud of himself, as he has walked up to the bus at North Sydney all by himself. He asked me to come down to the ground floor with him, but after that he walked very responsibly to the bus stop.

The trickest part is at the beginning, when he has to cross Lavender St, a very busy street. He usually waits for an adult to be nearby, in case the cars don't see him.

Catching the bus home

The boys are now advanced enough in their public transport capabilities to catch the bus home from school by themselves. They get on, watch carefully for their stop, and then get off and walk home.

It took a while before Evan trusted them to do it, as if they miss their stop they end up across the harbour bridge at the end of the run (which would mean having to figure out which bus to get back). But they are now old hands, and the only question for discussion is how fast they should walk home (Callum favouring a faster walking speed than Declan).

Shorn

For reasons which aren't entirely clear to me, Callum decided to get as much hair as possible cut in his latest hair cut. So he now looks quite different, and is noticing the difference even with his bike helmet, which isn't as snug as before.
I've uploaded some before during and after pictures for posterity.

Uber Gear engaged

After the rain stopped this morning we went for a bike ride to Barangaroo for a bit of exercise. The boys have started to get into the exciting feeling of riding fast, which they called uber gear. Callum, in particular, got into his top gear on the front wheel, which meant he was probably going faster than 30ks an hour (my guess, he doesn't have a cycle computer despite the electronics at home).

More school action

This week was a busy one on the high school preparation front. On Thursday morning, Callum did the selective schools test. He did about 20 minutes preparation the morning and evening before, which definitely put him at the bottom end of the level of preparation from any of the 13,512 students sitting the test this year (many of whom had coaching two days a week for the previous year). He said that he thought he had done a good job, so we will see in July how well he has done.

Then in the afternoon, Callum and I went to the International Grammar School open day, and had a tour taken by two current students (one of whom was also called Callum). We had a nice chat (partly in French) with one of the French teachers, but Callum was most taken with the laser etched medallion that he got in commemoration.

The final step in our current frenzy of tests and Open Days is on Monday, when Callum takes the test for the Mosman High academic stream.

Project work

Callum got a special extension project this term, which was quite extensive. He had to compare and contrast two books and their language used and present his results in an interesting way.

So with two weeks to go, we got him to prepare a plan for what he was going to do and by when, so that he would be able to finish comfortably.

But, given it was the first time we'd asked him to manage something like this, it wasn't a huge surprise that at 7.30 on Monday morning he was frantically making last minute edits to his speech and website, despite having had lots of time on the weekend to get it done. Luckily he hasn't yet worked out the concept of the allnighter, but give him time!

His website is here, we think he did a pretty good job, but his project management needs a bit of work!

Happy Birthday Grandpa

This evening we had a lovely evening with Grandma, Grandpa, Granny and special New Zealand guest Tiny. The boys had been looking forward to celebrating Grandpa's birthday which was last Saturday.

They baked him a cake, which he found touching. Less touching once he realised that they had actually iced a cardboard box, and sung Happy Birthday all with the intention of pranking him into trying to cut a piece of cardboard box to hand around.

Luckily there was also a real cake, and much enjoyment was had all round.

A soaking

In preparation for their intrepid trip to school this morning, the boys put on their Inca trail boots instead of their school shoes. By the time they got to school, though, the boots were soaked through as Sydney got 40mm of rain in the hour it took them to get to school.

Callum and Declan both had tales of the various unusual things their teachers let them do (stand in front of the heater in bare feet!) to compensate for the big wet.

And we were all competing tonight over dinner for who got the wettest this morning.

Mosman High Open night

This evening was Mosman High School's open night. We all went along to check it out. They put on a good show, with dry ice in the Science lab, a cool computer design project involving greek myths in the computer lab and some echidnas that turned into Sydney Opera Houses in the woodworking lab. (plus some very tasty hors doeuvres in the food tech section that only I enjoyed).

Callum came home reasonably happy with it, but Declan loved the place. He had never seen a high school before, and didn't realise what kind of science and woodworking equipment you might see. Plus he was very taken with the fact that the bus went from the door of Mosman High to our front door (particularly pertinent on a day like today where they got soaked 50 metres into the trip to school).

School interview at IGS

On Wednesday, Evan, Callum and I trekked out to International Grammar school to talk to them about Year 7 next year. We thought they were interviewing them, but it turned out they were interviewing us, as by the end of the interview they told us that Callum had a place if he wanted it.

It was Callum's first time talking to a high school, and he loved it, enjoying answering all of the Deputy Principal's questions, and lapping up the attention. She was clearly enamoured of his forthrightness and lack of self-consciousness (as well as his tales of our trip around the world) and told us at the end of the interview that she would love to have Callum next year.

Next step will be the selective schools test (in two weeks time), the Mosman high test (a little later) and various school open days.

At some point we will all have to make a decision (or else go back to homeschooling...)

Modern time capsule

Callum has just told me about his new time capsule. He's put an old USB stick into a test tube, and he plans to leave it there for a year, and find out then what his obsessions were.

Apparently it has all his old programming and robotics projects on it.

I didn't realise how much time capsules had changed since my time in primary school.

Sheep's brains

Callum continues to love his day a week at Cromer for extension. This week they dissected a sheep's brain (learning about concussion as part of the lesson) and then (hopefully after washing their hands) made apple turnovers.

Sadly I didn't get to eat any of the apple turnover (nor has he reprised the recipe at home) but by all reports they were delicious.

Pong is reborn as a Scratch program

Declan has spent all week programming in Scratch. He's been very excited. He programmed, all by himself, the famous early game Pong. You can play it if you click here.

If you don't have time to play it (or it doesn't work), you need to know that he has instructions, two players (with different controls) sounds every time the ball hits the walls, and a special "You Win!" graphic when a player gets the better of the other one.

He took his program to school this week, and showed it off to his teacher and the class, using the class smartboard. Unfortunately their excitement was tempered by the fact that the bell had already run for recess, so the game couldn't last too long.

He pretty much did all the programming himself, helped occasionally by Callum, who helped him think through a few tricky programming questions.

Robotics team

This year, Evan is once again running robotics after school at Cammeray. This year he has made an effort to get the boys to work in teams together. Declan teamed up with his friend Ethan (from his class) and James (Ethan's twin brother) and they had a wonderful time this week.

Declan came home desperate to tell me how they had helped each other, and combined their knowledge to make something that none of them could have made for themselves.

So much so that he told me robotics is now his favourite part of the week.

Declan suddenly becomes bike fanatic

This morning, when we were about to go on our ride, Declan was very grumpy. He just wanted to stay at home and play computer games. But this afternoon, when he was off to his friend Finn's house for a play, I offered him the option to ride our bikes up there (3km mostly uphill to Cammeray). He jumped at the chance, and was desperately keen to get going.

Not only that, he tried to persuade Finn's family to go for a bike ride when he got there! (they scootered instead, not having enough bikes available for the alternative).

I'm hoping he remembers that feeling next Sunday morning when we decide it is time for another ride...

Bike ride even further afield

When we were talking to our friends the Reeves this week, they told us that they had ridden to the Pyrmont Fish Markets . So we decided to do the same thing. Except that we realised we don't much like the fish markets (too crowded, and I'm the only one that likes seafood) so we stopped about 100 metres away when the ride stopped being beautiful.

Until that though, it was great. Across the bridge to Darling Harbour, across Pyrmont Bay bridge, then around the edge of the land until the path ran out. We had a stop in a playground in Pirrama Park, checked out some industrial detritus, and then turned around.

To our surprise, the boys wanted to go to the Powerhouse, so we rode there and had a quick look at the DesignTech exhibit, and a drink in the cafe, and then rode home.